Star Trek 100
by Lefting
Summary: FanFiction100 prompts aimed at the cast of the 2009 Star Trek Movie. Pairings: Jim/Bones slash and Spock/Nyota. Also starring Joanna "Annie" McCoy, Bones's five year old daughter. WIP
1. Chapter 1

000. Prologue and general introductions! OK, so I know this isn't an actual prompt, so… this isn't an actual chapter, it's just, as I've said, an introduction.

As you might have gathered this is a Star Trek (2009 movie, with a dash of the old stuff thrown in) attempt at fanfic100. I've tried this once before and managed to get to the second part, before I got bored, so keep your fingers crossed!

Aaaanyway, a little more info on the shipping. Spock/Uhura, because it's cute, Bones/Jim because they were the first fandom couple I actually liked, Sulu/Chapel (who isn't in the '09 film), and also featuring Scotty, Rand (also not in the '09 film) and Chekov who aren't with anyone. Scotty because I can't ever see him with someone, Rand because she's the sexy single and Chekov because he's seventeen and still (in my mind) at the omg! Pronz! Stage of life. That and there's no one else his age on board.

These are mostly in chronological order (unless said otherwise) and vary in length from a couple of hundred words to a couple of thousand. Now, if you're bored, for God's sake, start reading the damn thing, but if you're new to this thing here's the need-to-know stuff (characters & prompts)

Characters:

Captain James "Jim" T. Kirk - Commanding Officer

Commander Spock - First Officer and Science Officer

Lieutenant Commander Dr Leonard "Bones" H. McCoy - Chief Medical Officer

Lieutenant Commander Montgomery "Scotty" Scott - Second Officer and Chief Engineer

Lieutenant Nyota Uhura - Communications Officer

Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu - Helmsman

Ensign Pavel Chekov - Navigator

Yeoman Janice Rand - Captain's Yeoman

Lieutenant Christine Chapel - Head Nurse

Joanna "Annie" McCoy - Bones' daughter

Minor Characters:

Ambassador Sarek (Spock's father), Amanda Grayson (Spock's mother) Sam Kirk (Jim's older brother), Frank (Jim's step-father), George and Winona Kirk (Jim's dad and mum), Jocelyn (Bones' ex-wife), Admiral Christopher Pike (ex-captain to the _Enterprise_), Gaila (Uhura's old roommate),

Fanfic100 Prompts:

001. Beginnings.

002. Middles.

003. Ends.

004. Insides.

005. Outsides.

006. Hours.

007. Days.

008. Weeks.

009. Months.

010. Years.

011. Red.

012. Orange.

013. Yellow.

014. Green.

015. Blue.

016. Purple.

017. Brown.

018. Black.

019. White.

020. Colourless.

021. Friends.

022. Enemies.

023. Lovers.

024. Family.

025. Strangers.

026. Teammates.

027. Parents.

028. Children.

029. Birth.

030. Death.

031. Sunrise.

032. Sunset.

033. Too Much.

034. Not Enough.

035. Sixth Sense.

036. Smell.

037. Sound.

038. Touch.

039. Taste.

040. Sight.

041. Shapes.

042. Triangle.

043. Square.

044. Circle.

045. Moon.

046. Star.

047. Heart.

048. Diamond.

049. Club.

050. Spade.

051. Water.

052. Fire.

053. Earth.

054. Air.

055. Spirit.

056. Breakfast.

057. Lunch.

058. Dinner.

059. Food.

060. Drink.

061. Winter.

062. Spring.

063. Summer.

064. Fall.

065. Passing.

066. Rain.

067. Snow.

068. Lightening.

069. Thunder.

070. Storm.

071. Broken.

072. Fixed.

073. Light.

074. Dark.

075. Shade.

076. Who?

077. What?

078. Where?

079. When?

080. Why?

081. How?

082. If.

083. And.

084. He.

085. She.

086. Choices.

087. Life.

088. School.

089. Work.

090. Home.

091. Birthday.

092. Christmas.

093. Thanksgiving.

094. Independence.

095. New Year.

096. _Writer's Choice._

097. _Writer's Choice._

098. _Writer's Choice._

099. _Writer's Choice._

100. _Writer's Choice._


	2. 001 Beginnings

001. Beginnings

Joanna has never met her Daddy. Not that she can remember, anyway. Up until the age of four she was grateful for this. Her Mummy had always told her that Daddy had walked out on both of them. That he had fallen in love with another lady and had broken her heart. Joanna's Mummy had painted a picture of an evil warlock with no loyalties to anyone but himself who would sell Joanna to a wicked witch if he could. Or something along those lines.

But when Joanna started Big School she started hearing the other mummies talking. Their whispers were never particularly quiet and Joanna was smart enough to be able to concentrate on learning to join up her handwriting and listen to them at the same time. _They_ said that her Mummy was telling lies. That they felt sorry for poor 'Len', that getting a restraining order against a child's father simply wasn't right when it was Jocelyn who'd been in the wrong.

Joanna didn't know who 'Len' was, although she'd heard her Mummy complaining about him a lot to her friends, so she guessed that that was her Daddy. She also didn't know what a restraining order was, but it sounded like some kind of dark magic meant to keep her Daddy away from her. Joanna wanted to believe that her Mummy had simply been mistaken, but the more of the rumours she heard, the more Joanna came to understand that maybe, just maybe, her Mummy _was_ the Wicked Witch.

Joanna really liked _The Wizard of Oz_, no matter what her Mummy said about 'ancient texts' and 'out-dated classics'. Joanna liked to think of herself as Dorothy. She didn't have a scarecrow or a tin man or a lion, but she had Kip, who was much, _much_ bigger than the Toto in the films, since he was a Golden Labrador. Sometimes Joanna pretended that Kip was Toto, and sometimes she pretended he was the Cowardly Lion, because Kip was a bit of a coward too.

Her favourite film version of _The Wizard of Oz_ was the really old one, that started out in black and white and then changed to colour when Dorothy landed in Oz. Mr Browning, her teacher, had explained to her that back then, almost all films were in black and white because they hadn't worked out how to do colour very well yet, so when the film suddenly burst into bright yellows and reds and greens, it would have been amazing for the audience. Joanna thought that was funny, because she couldn't imagine seeing a _whole film_ without any colour in it.

In her daydreams, Joanna had always imagined herself still at the little drab grey farm in Kansas, and that one day she would be whisked away in to a fairytale world, where she would meet some lifelong friends and thwart a Wicked Witch. She'd always thought of her Daddy as one of the Wicked people, but she was starting to think that maybe, just maybe, he was more like the Wizard of Oz, and wouldn't that just be _brilliant_!

So one day, about two months before she turned five, Joanna told her Mummy what she'd been hearing from the other mummies, and demanded that she be told the truth. Her Mummy had sent her up to her room, then, and said that little girls shouldn't worry about such things. Joanna had screamed and screamed and _screamed_ at the door, but it hadn't budged and her Mummy had simply gone downstairs and left her to wear herself out.

But Joanna was a very clever little girl, and her Mummy wasn't really. There was a balcony all along one side of the house and, though it was split up into different sections; part for Joanna's bedroom, part for her Mummy's and part for the guest room, it was pretty easy for Joanna to climb over the low boundaries. And when she lifted the latch of the balcony door it slid open easily. Joanna crept out, feeling like she was on some great, daring adventure, and climbed over the boundary and tried her Mummy's bedroom door. It was locked from the inside, but the bathroom window was wide open, so Joanna boosted herself up using her Mummy's sun-lounger and slipped through the narrow gap.

Not sure what she was looking for; whether it was simply an escape route or something more, she didn't know. But when she saw her Mummy's com lying open on the bedside table, Joanna had a wonderful idea. She pressed the 'on' button and patiently waited for the programs to load. Finally, after what felt like far too long, the com bleeped at her that it was ready, and she pressed the 'search' button. Joanna didn't know how to spell 'Len', whether it was how it sounded, or whether it was like Louis' name that should be spelt Looy, in her opinion. But then she had a better idea. For a reason that her Mummy never explained, both Joanna and she had kept the McCoy surname. And Joanna knew how to spell that! She could spell her name before she'd started Big School.

Fingers fumbling over the unfamiliar key pad, it took a while and a few mistakes before Joanna had managed to type it in correctly.

Four results came up. One was her Mummy's com, one was their home phone, one was for her Granny and Gramps in Georgia - who she never saw because they were her Daddy's parents, so Mummy didn't like them, but who she talked to on the coms a lot. And finally there was one under the name 'Leonard McCoy'. Joanna wasn't sure, because 'Len' didn't sound like 'lee-oh-nar-d', but since she recognised the other names and numbers, she dialled that one anyway.

"What, Jocelyn?" a hard voice snapped down the link after only two rings, making Joanna almost drop the com in surprise.

The screen flickered for a moment, before the harsh face of a man who might have been her Mummy's age, but Joanna couldn't tell because to her people were either her age, old like the kids in the High School across the road, really old like her Mummy, or ancient, like all of her grandparents. The stranger called Lee-oh-nard was definitely in the 'really old' category, but that didn't mean he was the same age as her Mummy.

"Dammit, Jocelyn, I don't have time to deal with you right now! I have exams in…" he trailed off mid-sentence as he finally glanced down at his com and he gaped at her.

"Are you Lee-oh-nard?" Joanna asked politely, because she was a lady. And it was funny watching the stranger stare like his eyes might fall out at any moment.

"It's Leonard," he corrected automatically after a moment more of shock. Then he asked, "Are you Joanna?"

Joanna grinned brilliantly at him, and the ragged edge of the lines of 'Lenurd's face softened ever so slightly. "Yeah. I'm Joanna. And my Mummy's Jocelyn, and I heard some people talking about poor Len and respurururatory orders that sound like black magic to me and how my Mummy cheated on my Daddy and I don't know what 'cheated on' means, except I know it's bad because when you cheat at a game it's not fair, and so I yelled at Mummy and she locked me in my bedroom and I climbed over the balcony to get into her bedroom and I found her com and searched for 'McCoy' because I know that's my Daddy's name, and there was Mummy's number, and our house number and Granny and Gramps number and then there was your number and I thought Lee-oh-nard was a bit like Len, so maybe you were my Daddy," she burst out, rambling quickly and quietly so that she could tell him as much as she possibly could, without her Mummy coming in and finding her.

"It's Leonard," he told her again, as though repeating himself was the only way he could deal with the shock of seeing her.

"Well I know that _now_," she retorted, rolling her eyes. "But I'm not too good with my 'nunciation yet, and Leonard's _spelt_ like Lee-oh-nard."

"Is it really you, Joanna?" he asked her again.

For a moment Joanna thought maybe there was something wrong with Leonard, because he kept repeating himself. But then she saw the tears leaking out of his eyes and that thought was thrown away, because when _she_ was upset, she repeated herself too. Instead, Joanna felt very worried for Leonard. "Don't cry," she pleaded with him. "Please don't cry. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you sad."

"Oh, sweetpea," he said, hand starting forward like he wanted to touch her through the com. Which was silly of him, because he wouldn't be able to touch her through it, no matter how hard he tried. "I'm not sad," he explained. "My little Annie - I haven't seen you since you were two and a tiny, wriggling toddler."

"I'm not _little_," Joanna said, and pouted. "I'm four and five sixths, which means it's my birthday in two months."

"I know, Annie, I know. I'd never forget something as monumental as your birthday."

Joanna stared at him curiously. "Are you my Daddy, then?"

"Yeah, sweetpea, yeah I am," he was properly crying now, tears coursing down his cheeks and, truth be told, Joanna felt a little worried about him. But also elated because she had found her Daddy and he wasn't a wicked Warlock, because no one wicked can cry, except for crocodiles, and her Daddy wasn't a crocodile, so he must be a good person.

"Why'd you call me 'Annie'?" she asked politely.

He laughed a little, but it was a brittle, awkward sound that made Joanna feel a bit uncomfortable. "Your Mummy was 'Jo' to me, so when we named you Joanna, I couldn't call both of you 'Jo', so you became 'Annie' to me. God, you were so precious and tiny when you were a baby."

"Baby's are icky," Joanna told him with decisively and this time when he laughed, it was a proper one that made her want to smile widely back at him.

They talked for quite a while, until Joanna's Mummy burst into the room, looking about frantically. When she saw Joanna, there was quite a bit of shouting and when she saw who she was talking to on the com, there was quite a bit more. Joanna wasn't prone to crying, but when her Mummy started shouting a lot of Bad Words through the com to her Daddy, she couldn't help herself. Because even if her Mummy had cheated in a game against her Daddy, that didn't make her a bad person. There was a girl in Joanna's class at school who cheated a lot in games, but she was a really, really nice person who had shared her lunch with Joanna when Joanna's Mummy had been in too much of a rush to make one for her.

But shouting all those Bad Words was never a good thing, and it was when her Mummy started shouting about the restraining order that Joanna finally lost it. She let out a great wail of grief and ran from her Mummy's room, slamming the door loudly behind her and running into her bedroom, were she curled up in the dusty, cosy space under her bed. Kip came to investigate the noise and, just scare as she was of her Mummy's shouting, he crawled into her room on his belly, ears flattened in submission. Seeing her hidden away, he burrowed his way under too and curled up around her as she hid, shaking.

For her birthday that year, Joanna got her Daddy back.

Her Daddy was very, very different from her Mummy and sometimes that was a very, very good thing. Sometimes it was bad, though. Her Daddy was much more strict about certain things; she didn't get all of the toys she asked for, wasn't allowed to stay up as late as she wanted. But he loved her, she knew that. Her Mummy had said it all the time, 'I love you', but she had never really meant it or shown Joanna how much. Her Daddy did, every single day. He never actually said that he loved her, but that was ok, because he always tucked her in at night, always had time to read her a bed time story, always asked how school had been that day.

Her Daddy lived in a small apartment that he shared with Jim, who was a funny man who called her Daddy 'Bones', although she didn't know why. She did like Jim, though, very much. He was always up for a good game of whatever she wanted to play, and he snuck her lollipops sometimes, when he thought her Daddy wasn't looking. When she wanted to watch a film, he was also good for filling up the other end of the sofa, so she was snuggled in between her Daddy and Jim. And Jim always cried at the sad parts, like she did, and then her Daddy would have to get up and get both of them tissues to wipe the tears away.

But despite the good times and the fact that Joanna loved her Daddy, it was still difficult getting used to this new way of life. She missed her Mummy, even though the stern looking 'social worker' (whatever _that _was) said that she hadn't been taking care of Joanna properly. And while when she was with her Daddy that pain mostly went away, she still found herself yelling at him and his face would crumple like someone screwing up a sheet of paper and she'd feel bad. But he'd comfort her and promise that he was always going to look after her, and then she'd kiss hiss cheek and the crumpled expression went away again.

The rules with her Daddy were very different as well. She could do things that she wasn't allowed to with her Mummy - like wake up late on the weekends and have lots of friends over for a sleepover - but there were other things that she had been allowed to do that she couldn't anymore. The most major one of which was her bed time. Joanna was used to going to sleep when she felt tired, but now everyday at six o'clock she'd have to get ready for bed and then her Daddy would read stories, or make them up until tucking her in and turning the lights off at seven. When she'd complained about it, he had told her firmly that he was a doctor and that routine was good and that she needed lots of sleep so she could grow really tall. Joanna wasn't sure this was a good thing, but her Daddy wouldn't let her argue with him, so she just did as he said.

Doctor Leonard H McCoy - that was his full name. Joanna wasn't sure what the 'H' stood for, but when she asked Jim he didn't know either, so they had decided that maybe it didn't stand for anything and was simply an 'H'. Which made sense, really. Joanna was very proud of her Daddy. He'd been a doctor since shortly after she was born, but he was back at school now, training to be a Medical Officer for the Starfleet. Jim was a cadet, too, but he wasn't a doctor. Joanna didn't know what he did, precisely, but she didn't ask because when she did he would start using lots of really long words that she didn't understand. Then he'd mutter something about 'three years' and 'Pike'. Joanna was pretty sure a pike was a type of fish, but she'd got bored of listening to Jim by then, so she didn't ask.

Often, her Daddy and Jim were both very busy, although they always did their best to make sure one of them was free, at least, that wasn't always possible. When that happened Jim or her Daddy took her to the entrance of what proclaimed itself to be the staff lounge. Once there, they'd knock on the door and apologise profusely to the group of really old and ancient people who lived there, before telling her to behave herself. They never entered the staff lounge, and Joanna worked out pretty quickly that these people were her Daddy and Jim's teachers, which was funny because it meant that she could call them by their first names and her Daddy and Jim couldn't.

Her favourite teacher had pointy ears. He didn't say an awful lot, but he had very dark, expressive eyes, although no one else seemed to notice that. His name was Spock. He didn't have a first name or a last name, he just had a name. When she asked him where he got his ears he'd explained that he was half Vulcan. He'd been the very first alien Joanna had ever been properly introduced to, which meant that he was immediately one of her favourite people. Spock was also just about the only teacher who wasn't condescending. He taught her how to play 3D chess, and even let her win sometimes.

After three months of living permanently with her Daddy, Joanna had decided that she much preferred it to living with her Mummy. She never went hungry, and there was always someone whom she could talk to if she wanted. Which was a lot of the time, because Joanna liked talking to people. She still missed her Mummy sometimes, and she missed Kip a bit too, but she could still com her Mummy whenever she wanted, so it wasn't as though she had to live completely without. No, life had taken a turn for the better and Joanna loved it.


	3. 002 Middles

002. Middles

Jim didn't know when he'd fallen in love with Bones, only that by the time he'd realised that was what had happened, there was nothing he could do about it. He had stood by his best friend's side as he fought for custody for his daughter, and struggled through his exams at the same time. He had protected Bones from the thousands of rumours that had spread like wildfire around campus, when he started walking around with a five year old girl attached to his left hand. He would have died for Bones, if he had to.

Jim had managed to convince his brother to come to San Francisco to look after Annie for the two days during which he and Bones had been fighting off Romulans . He'd fought with just about everyone on board the _Enterprise_, before finally cruising her to victory.

But by God, if his heart hadn't raced a mile a minute when it became clear the next planet on Nero's doom list was Earth. If he lost Annie… if he had to watch Bones lose Annie… it didn't bear thinking about. But that didn't matter. What did matter was the way he'd grabbed Bones' elbows, and swung them about in a strange victory dance-type twirl. And what really mattered was the way he'd kissed Bones. The way they had fit together so completely, that Jim couldn't bear to let go. And yet, when he saw the look of pure shock on Bones' face, he had to let go. He had run, and run and run and not looked back. Because the thought of losing Bones as a friend was almost as bad as the thought of seeing Bones lose Annie.

The ragtag crew thrown together mostly from three-year cadets, had been given two weeks shore leave to get their affairs in order before they were to be sent on their very first deep space mission. Two weeks wasn't nearly long enough to say goodbye to friends and family for almost five years, but that was how long it would take for the engineering and mechanics crew to finish the repairs on the _Enterprise_, so that was how long they had. Jim had tried to avoid going back to the apartment he shared with Bones, but since it was his brother who was looking after Annie, his procrastination only delayed him an hour or so.

When he arrived, however, Bones and Annie weren't there, although Sam was. He'd taken one look at his brother and groaned, knowing that whatever came next wouldn't be pretty. Sam had just looked at him and laughed.

"By God, Jimmy, you save the world and you look like a kicked puppy." There was a pause during which the elder Kirk brother grinned and the younger glared. "What d'you do to the poor doctor, anyway?" Sam wanted to know. "Give him a good shag and then disappear before morning light?"

"Piss off," Jim responded, slouching further into the chair and glancing around sullenly.

Sam faked a gasp. "That bad, huh? What _did_ you do? When you weren't, you know, saving the world and all."

"I didn't do anything!" Jim shouted. "All I did was kiss the bastard and he acts like heaven and hell decided on a single, acceptable afterlife."

Sam laughed again, in the very loud, obnoxious way that Jim did, but didn't know he did, and that just really, really irritated him. "So you run for the hills?" he said, more than asked, because he knew his little brother very well - or at least well enough to know that Jim was never one to give his heart away on a whim.

"Piss off," Jim repeated, wishing he had a shot of something very alcoholic he could choke back.

"All I'm gonna say, Jimmy, is that your doctor looked pretty upset that you left him standing there like that."

"He's not _my_ doctor," Jim protested weakly.

Sam tried, and failed, to raise an eyebrow, managing to look comical and sceptical at the same time. "Isn't he?"

Jim wished he could say that yes, yes, yes, Bones was his, all his and screw everyone else. Well, except Annie, who belonged to both of them, almost, by now. But he didn't dare hope that it was true, so he pushed the topic aside to give Sam an in-depth account of the past few days, starting from his probation, right through to The Kiss. It'd been a while since he'd had time to just sit and hang out with brother, and it was nice to catch up again, especially since it would be a while before they see each other again.

"Don't count on it being the full five years, though, Jimmy-boy," Sam warned. "I'm heading out toward the outer reaches myself soon; there're multitudes of new wriggly, slimy, creepy-crawly things that need to be analysed and classified."

Jim shuddered at the mention on the bugs that Sam had based his entire life around. He loved his brother, really he did, but _bugs_? Really? The thought of seeing Sam for real before the end of the five years was comforting, though. They're all the family they had left really. They never really knew their mother, she was always away on missions, and when she was on Earth, she only had time for Frank. And Frank, their step-father, had cared for them only enough to turn up at the hospital to take them home if they'd gone and done something stupid.

Promising to com at least twice a month, Sam had eventually left, just as Bones and Annie returned home. Annie's eyes lit up like the fourth of July when she saw Jim, and moments after she arrived she was in Jim's arms, launched there by springy, skinny legs and her sheer enthusiasm. Jim hauled her up to balance on his hip, although she was too large to be carried that way anymore, really. But Jim can't help himself, hugging her tight and telling her he loves her. She kissed him on each cheek, and giggled madly as his long fingers crept to her side and tickled her.

Jim didn't look at Bones. He let his whole world, just for five minutes, be Annie. But she was so much like her father. Her grin is his, although he never grinned much. Her dark brown hair is his too, although hers is more red. Her bright, shining eyes are Bones' too. Then Jim put her down and pushed her towards the bathroom, telling her to get ready for bed; he promised to tell her the story of his adventure when she was ready, so she raced off. It's heartbreaking. All her happiness and hope - and when Jim looked up, finally, to meet Bones' eyes, he couldn't see any of it. He wanted Bones' eyes to light up like Annie's did.

"Jim-" the doctor started, but Jim cut him off straight away.

"I'm sorry," he croaked on a whisper. "I didn't… I don't… just tell me that you can forgive me?" he pleaded. "I can't lose you, Bones. You're my best friend ever." Jim glared ferociously at the toes of his boots and did his best to fight the fierce blush he's sure was spread across his cheeks.

But then Bones is by his side and grasping his chin to tilt his face up. "No, Jim, _I'm _sorry," he apologised and his words struck fear in Jim's heart.

"Bones, Leonard, _please_," and Jim forgot that he was a Starfleet captain and that Starfleet captains don't beg, ever. Because he wouldn't lose Bones. He wouldn't. God, please.

Bones put a finger gently over Jim's lips, effectively shutting him up. "_Jim_," he murmured, and it sounded like a prayer. And then, _then_, Bones' finger is removed and replaced by his lips and _God_ it felt like heaven and Jim couldn't get enough, because this was _Bones _and he's been God-damned in love with him since the daft man told him 'I might throw up on you.'

"I'm sorry," Bones said, when they finally broke apart. "For acting like an idiot and not bloody well kissing you back. I'm sorry for letting you go and think that I didn't want you."

Jim laughed, and Bones looked affronted and started to say something more, but it was Jim's turn to shut him up by snogging him silly. A titter from the bathroom doorway, broke the two men apart pretty rapidly, but Annie took it all in her stride, grinning at both of them and asking did that make Jim her Pa? Jim grinned like a fool when Bones said yes.

Forty minutes and an excited, animated retelling of their adventure later and Annie was curled up fast asleep in her bed and Jim and Bones are left alone again for the first time since the revelation. Neither one was sure who moved first, only that moments later they were lying on the sofa, attempting to suck the other's face off - in the most pleasurable way possible.

"I have a feeling," Jim said between gasps as Bones attacked his neck with gusto. "That this is the start of a beautiful relationship."

"No, Jim," Bones disagreed, "We've been friends for years, this is just the spectacular middle of a very beautiful relationship."

Jim certainly didn't disagree.


	4. 003 Ends

003. Ends

Spock loves Nyota. He just doesn't know it.

Everyone else knows, it's pretty obvious from the way he looks at her. By the way he holds her. By the way he _smiles_ at her. By the way that he - the logical, unemotional, always-stick-by-the-rules, has broken just about a dozen of his beloved protocols for having a relationship with her. Even Bones, who doesn't care to notice that sort of thing - has noticed it and knows it. Nyota knows it - _feels_ it in her bones. But Spock remains happily oblivious.

He's not stupid - no one could ever describe Spock as _that_ - but he knows little in the ways of the heart, so he doesn't know what it means. He knows that his heart beat stutters a little every time he walks into a room where she is and he didn't expect to see her. He knows that her touch leaves a trail of fire behind. He knows that her kisses leave him longing for more. He knows that he cares for her. He knows that he lusts for her.

Spock also knows that Nyota returns these emotions. She came after him when his mother died, wanting to know what she could do for him, and not what he could do as captain, for them. She smiles when she sees him, she blushes when he shows little tokens of affection. She was on the verge of tears when he left on what should have been a suicide mission; but she was _so_ strong, and she only kissed him and wished him luck. Because Nyota didn't cry.

She's the only person _ever_ who he's let touch his ears.

When they board the _USS Enterprise_ once the maintenance work has been finished and just before they leave for their five year mission, Spock knows that he feels relief that her name is on the crew list. Spock puts up with Jim's larking about without much annoyance, when he sees Nyota smile for him, when she sees that he is coming too. The pride in her eyes, when he becomes First Officer. He doesn't even throw too much of a fuss when Dr McCoy brings his five year old daughter on board, saying that she was coming with them. After all, he knows and quite likes the little girl who he's babysat for more than once. And Nyota thinks Joanna should come.

Joanna is the only one who is able to read him completely. Spock puts it down to the intuition that all little children seem to have, but he suspects it's got more to do with the fact that, like her father, she's a genius. And, like her mother, she's charismatic. So when Joanna tells him he loves Nyota, he believes her.

It takes a little while for the message, to sink in though.

Half an hour later, Spock is eating with Jim and Chekov in the Mess hall when suddenly he realises. He loves Nyota. The others, noticing that Spock has gone rigid in his seat and that they can tell that he's surprised, ask what's wrong. Because surely something must be wrong for Spock to be showing so much emotion - other than irritation - so blatantly.

"I love Nyota," he tells them.

This statement does not shock either Jim or Chekov and he wonders whether he actually said the words, or if they got caught somewhere between his heart, his brain and his mouth.

"Yeah, we know," Jim says, obliterating that thought. "So, seriously, what's up?"

Spock mutters something about the placement of objects in relation to himself not correlating to their importance either physically or emotionally, but Jim rolls his eyes; they've had that argument before.

"I think that Commander Spock has only just realised," Chekov says, around his thick Russian accent and the bite of food in his mouth.

Jim laughs raucously, until Spock asks him why he finds it humorous. This shuts Jim up pretty quickly, but before he has time to voice the thought; 'wait, seriously?' Spock is up, out of his chair and out of the door, leaving behind half his lunch. And Jim knows that Spock must be serious, because; firstly, the Vulcan never jokes, and secondly, he's left half of his nutrients-rich, carefully balanced lunch behind. Which never happens.

Spock does not waste time talking to the crew members who ask him what his wrong, doesn't answer his com when it goes off, because it is not Nyota, and he must see Nyota.

She is on the bridge, working through the new systems that maintenance have updated and familiarising herself with the equipment before they make their first contact with another race in two weeks' time. Spock pauses in the doorway, just looking at her, soaking up every detail of her body. Which is illogical because he sees her everyday, has made love to her, and he _knows _every detail. Still, it comforts him.

Nyota glances up after a little while and shoots him a half smile. She returns to her work without asking why he is there. Before she continues working, Spock steps forward and puts a hand on her shoulder.

"Nyota," he says quietly, with more confidence than he actually has. "I did not want to interrupt you, but I had to tell you-" he hesitates, and she frowns at the unfamiliarity of the gesture. "-that I love you," he finishes quickly.

Her smile is like sunrise, warming him inexplicably. She stands and drops a kiss on his lips, then sits back down. "I know, Spock, you didn't have to tell me." She grins brilliantly up at him. "I love you too."

"You also do not need to say it. I am aware of your feelings," Spock tells her, his nervousness and joy making him sound more formal and cut off than usual. He squeezes her shoulder, so she knows that he does not mean to offend. But Nyota is smiling and he knows that everything between them is fine.

He kisses the top of her head as she returns to her work and then leaves, walking slowly back to the Mess hall with a smile tempting to curl the edges of his lips. He remains in control until he sees Jim grinning foolishly, expectantly and catches his eye. A tiny smile slips out and Jim's own expression becomes softer - a shared moment of understanding that is so rare between them. But their mutual enmity for each other had faded, somewhere during Spock saving Jim's life and Jim saving Spock's life, so he thinks that those shared moments will increase in number, although perhaps not frequency. It is good to know that he is no longer enemies with Jim, but perhaps friends.

It is better to know that Nyota loves him and that he, without any doubt, loves her.


	5. 004 Insides

004. Insides

Annie's not ever been on a starship before, and certainly not one as grand and spectacular as the newest flagship for the federation, the _USS Enterprise_. She's not supposed to be on board, of course. No one under the age of twenty is allowed aboard a starship without a general consensus at the local council unless there's an emergency.

Missing her Daddy didn't count.

Not that anyone complained. In fact, the only reason the whole matter came up in the first place was only because there's twenty-four hour surveillance on the bridge at all times. And Annie has an innate sense of direction that, just as with Jim, leads her directly to trouble. Which, in this case, meant the bridge and surveillance and the five year deep space voyage being postponed for a further three days so that Jim could undergo an enquiry as to just who he was letting on board his new vessel.

Scotty thinks it's hilarious, since it was _he_ who allowed the little girl to beam aboard. Not that he'll ever tell anyone that, he's not suicidal after all. Spock cites various regulations when Annie appears, but soon shuts up at the expressions on both his Captain's and the CMO's faces - the strange mixture of irritation, pride and expectation makes him realise that both Jim and Bones had seen this coming and that they just might have been disappointed if it hadn't. So Spock trails off and goes to stand beside Nyota, who's eyeing Annie with a mixture of wariness and glee. Spock doesn't know which is worse.

In any case, as soon as the council hear the entire story of how Annie came to be aboard, suddenly her presence is allowed and the mission is back on track - this time with an adventurous five year old tagging along with them.

It takes a couple more hours for all of the provisions needed to help bring up a five year old, but not too long. After the baby boom fiasco a couple of years previous, when a starship reported the birth of no less than six babies within the first eighteen months of their mission. With no way of transporting the infants back to Earth, and the parents adamant that they take care of the young children, and not leave it on some alien planet, the transmissions coms were jammed up for the next three months with all the information that was being transferred to help aid the children's growth. Since then every starship on a longer than two year mission is stocked with enough supplies to support the birth of up to ten babies and cover child education from birth to the age two years more than the length of the mission - just in case.

As such, it didn't take too long to get enough supplies to cover one little girl for the extra three years they hadn't accounted for. Or, at least, that was the theory. What the Federation didn't take into account was the fact that this particular little girl had Bones for a father and had, for over year, been living with Jim. Who, everyone knew, was the worst possible role model a child could possibly have. Especially a child who was just as brilliant as he was.

Within a month of being on the _Enterprise_, Annie knows the ship better than anyone else. Because she doesn't have to wait for the rest of her class to do the work, and has the entire crew wrapped around her little finger, all wanting to teach her and love her, she has a lot of freedom and a lot of spare time. The enthral of being on board an actual starship, actually in space, travelling at warp speed didn't wear off quickly. Annie spends hours racing up and down corridors, searching for different routes and hidden doors. She enjoys the cargo decks the most, because the passages between crates are unknown to anyone but her and she likes to get lost, sometimes, and turn up hours later, to find everyone frantic with worry except for Jim, who claims with a broad grin 'she'll always come back.'

Annie likes to pester the mechanics about the multitudes of piping they're constantly fixing. She doesn't understand why they can't make it so that the pipes don't break. And she can slip into gaps that the much larger adults can't, and surprise them. Annie likes surprising people, she soon learns. She didn't before, because her Mummy would scold her for it, but here, with the crew, they laugh with her and ruffle her hair. Annie likes having so many friends.

When the _Enterprise _arrives at the next docking station, a baby step away from Earth compared to how far they expect to go, Annie is with the first group that leave the starship. Both Daddy and Jim - who she's still not used to calling 'Pa' yet - insist that she takes a com with her, but she doesn't mind so much. She knows that they've initiated the tracking device in it, but that just means that they're giving her silent permission to go and explore a bit. When they arrive, Annie waits long enough to be introduced to the senior officer at the station, before she kisses her Daddy and Jim on the cheek and scampering off. It makes her smile when she hears Jim's raucous but honest laughter follow her.

The station isn't particularly large, and the stop isn't for long, it's mostly just to refuel and allow the crew members all to spend one night without worrying about their craft. That's a luxury that within seven months of their mission they won't be allowed to have. But one of the things that Annie loves about it is exploring the station, getting to know the ins and outs, and discovering new friends. There are a higher percentage of Vulcans than normal on this docking station, Annie soon learns, and one of them is a girl only two years older than herself.

There are six children of varying ages at this particular station, and they all find Annie a curiosity, as she does them. She hasn't seen someone her own age for two months, and they haven't met someone her age who wasn't born there. It's a strange situation, but Annie quite likes it because children always have an uncanny ability of finding hiding spaces, and so they always know an area better than any adult. Seeing her interest, they give her the hide-and-seek version of the tour and Annie loves them for it.

Once they leave Annie has formed her conclusion; there are four main types of people. There are those that spend all their time looking at the outside, wanting to expand their horizons and step into new Galaxies. There are those who only see the obvious, that is right in front of them. There are those who live in a world of dreams, taking what they see and creating fantastical worlds from their own imagination, and exploring them at their leisure. And there are those who take what they are given and show people secret things, hidden behind the obvious in their everyday life, revealing the insides. Annie thinks that the last type are the rarest. She also likes to think that she is one of them.


	6. 005 Outsides

005. Outsides

Chekov was annoyed. He was one of the smartest people on board the _Enterprise_ - which was saying something, considering how smart the Captain and Dr McCoy and Mr Spock were - he had been bumped up two years at school, fast tracked pretty much all of the standard education courses, entered Starfleet two years early and managed to complete the course (by the rules, he might add) in three years. And yet they still treated him like the baby.

He didn't understand it. Yes, he was seventeen, and no, he hadn't ever had sex - but what did that have to _do_ with anything? He performed his job admirably and was almost as good as the legendary 'Scotty' was at transporting people. _Almost_, because he could only use methods he already knew, he couldn't intuitively program the machines to do something new. He was fluent in three different languages - not including his first language, Russian - and so what if his accent was a little heavy? It was better than the steadfastly Standard-speaking McCoy could ever do.

It wasn't as if he was mean to anyone, or even that anyone was mean to him. In fact, Chekov got on with pretty much everyone he talked to, once they got the hang of listening to his accent. It was just - everyone was so _patronising_. And it couldn't just be to do with his age - he'd seen Uhura have a perfectly normal conversation with Joanna without patronising the five year old. In fact, the crew seemed to hold more esteem by Joanna's intelligence than Chekov's. Which was really irritating. Chekov knew Joanna was just as brilliant as any of the senior officers, but she didn't yet have the learning, that he had spent twelve years of his life coupling with his natural brilliance.

So why was he the bottom of the pecking order?

Fortunately, or unfortunately, as it had seemed at the time, he ended up getting locked into a lower level storage room for a couple of hours, shortly after they left the first docking station. The lower levels didn't have great com connections, so he hadn't been able to contact anyone to get him out. As it happened, within half an hour, Joanna had stumbled across him.

"Hello," she said, grinning at him. "What're you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same question," he retorted, still sore about the whole Uhura-is-less-patronising-to-her thing.

Joanna stuck her tongue out at him. "You could do, but I asked first," she shot back, and glared at him expectantly.

After a brief and admittedly childish staring match, Chekov finally admitted, "I came down to access the only _draniki_s the ship has in supply and that the food replicator was refusing to give me, but the door shut behind me and it opens from the outside, so I am stuck."

"And there's no food in this storage, so you don't even get to sit and eat your drunkies?" Joanna asked with a grin.

"_Draniki_," Chekov corrected sourly. "They are potato pancakes."

Joanna sat, suddenly, cross legged on the ground in front of him and stared up. "_Draniki_," she repeated, pronouncing the second 'i' too heavily, but close enough. "How's it spelt in the Russian letters?" she asked.

"It is called the Cryillic Alphabet, in Standard," he told her, sitting now as well. He had nothing else to do, so he might as well humour her. "It's spelt either драники or дранікі," he said, as he scratched the symbols into the side of one of the crates with his pen. "It depends on whether you use the Russian of Belarusian version."

"What's the difference?" she asked.

And so, Chekov found himself drawn into conversation with the five year old, only at the end of which did he realise why the conversation he had over heard between Uhura and Joanna - who had become Annie by then - had seemed so natural. Annie had elements of curiosity and naivety that belonged so clearly to a five year old, but her understanding was almost unnatural in its complexity. She made links in ways that adults could - in ways Chekov was still learning.

It was only later, once they had been rescued and weeks later, when they were having another of their in depth conversations-slash-Russian lessons that Chekov learnt why. It was when they started talking of her past.

Annie had never been abused, per se, her mother had loved her in her own way, but she was not someone who knew how to treat a young child. Jocelyn had treated Annie, even from when she was still in nappies, as though she were an adult who should be capable of looking after herself. She assumed if she were too busy to feed her, Annie could feed herself. That if she had no time to dress her, then Annie could dress herself. Jocelyn had considered Annie as a naïve friend whom she was introducing to the sophisticated world of a socialite.

Her daughter had not been able to see that there was anything wrong with this. As far as she and her young friends had been able to see, this was natural. Annie was 'lucky'. If it meant she hadn't eaten sometimes, Annie just accepted that as part of her life. It was what had always happened. It was only when she started living with Dr McCoy and the Captain, that she had understood that this was wrong. "Emotional neglect" the court had said.

Chekov didn't care what the court called it. Annie was exceptionally clever, just as he was. But whilst Chekov had been brought up surrounded by family members, all making sure he ate all of his greens and allowing him ice creams and trips to the beach, she had had a lonely childhood so far. He had been taught the traditional education and had to learn, as every teenager did, how to transform from child to adult on his own. She, thanks to her mother, had been taught how to be an adult. Now McCoy and Kirk, with the rest of the crew, were teaching her how to be a child.

Understanding why he was the baby of the crew, despite his twelve year superiority to their youngest member, was painful. Knowledge was dangerous, sometimes; physically or emotionally. But the fact remained that, in spite of their outward appearances, when it came to social situations Annie was far older than he.

Not that it didn't still really irritate him that he was picked on for being so young.


	7. 006 Hours

_(If you're curious as to what the unnamed aliens in this look like, think Ludo from David Bowie's _Labyrinth_, but a lot smaller, a bit fatter, without the horns and blue.)_

006. Hours

It had taken _days_ for them to come to a suitable conclusion - as in, a solution that didn't involve Bones' head being flung back at them over the hastily raised barricades, like a chapter from _Lord of the Rings_. To be more precise it had taken eight days and five hours. Over a week. Over a week without _Bones_.

The surprising thing was that the two people who were the most rational and clear headed throughout the whole thing - aside from Dr McCoy himself, who was 'imprisoned' by this strange new race and spent most of his time telling anecdotes about his lover and daughter and thus knew that there was no risk - were Jim and Annie. Annie because she had befriended one of the race's children before the whole kafuffle had begun and was well aware of their love of practical jokes, and Jim because as he had proven before he had an astounding ability to compartmentalise.

Not that that didn't stop Jim from feeling every single one of those two hundred and three hours acutely.

It had started when an unidentified blip on the radar screen was picked up and Jim and Spock had decided it would be in the Federation's best interests to go and see what it was. As it had turned out, it was a spaceship unlike any they had seen before. Not in the way it was sized or shaped, but rather more in the way they had great difficulty seeing it at all. The race on board had designed the ship to be as invisible as impossible - both to the naked eye and to various radars. It had been mere chance that the _Enterprise_ had seen it at all.

The race, however, had not initially seemed particularly offensive. In fact, the reason for their secrecy was pretty obvious - they were small, rotund creatures that, whilst speaking perfect Standard, also jabbered incessantly among themselves in a language even Nyota hadn't been able to identify the roots of. More importantly, however, was their speed - or lack of it. Their planet had been an almost entirely peaceful one and, without any predators, they had evolved to be slow, weak beings with no poison or spines for protection. In fact, the only thing that could protect them was their own cunning, which they had plenty of.

Their planet had been invaded and this ship was all that remained of their kind. And with so many wounded on board, Dr McCoy and his medical team had immediately volunteered to board their ship and help. With the size differences, however, it soon became clear that if any aid was to be offered, these small people would have to come on board the _Enterprise_. Permission granted, it took less than an hour for them to have overrun the med bay and start spreading outwards.

Jim, Spock and the rest of the command team had managed to cut off all access routes, including ventilation ducts in the next hour, and Nyota had begun analysing their language for hints on what they were saying to one another.

It was then that the death threats were passed forward. "Turn Bones to bones," was a notable quote from the first one sent - a phrase that only Annie had the presence of mind to find humour in.

Because Annie, with her knowledge of the insides of the _Enterprise_ had been the only one to 'escape'. She had been in the med bay with her father when the transmission had first come in and, intrigued by what this race might look like, she had begged Bones to let her stay. He had agreed, reluctantly, with the one promise that she remain sequestered in his office and out of sight. Which, to be fair to her, she had done. But when the aliens had boarded she was no longer the only curious child on board and, within moments of their arrival, a small, presumably male, _thing_ arrived.

Annie had no way of knowing how old he was, but he was about a foot tall and was covered all over with thick blue hair. His smile and the mischievous glint in his eye, however, meant that within second of their meeting Annie concluded that it didn't matter how old he was, so long as he could live up to that suggested playful deviousness.

By the time they successfully picked the lock of her Daddy's desk, taken out his bottle of bourbon and replaced it with an empty holograph of itself, they were firm friends. The adults of this race had also between them concocted the prank that would lead to the two hundred and three worst hours of Jim's life - to date, at least.

They had explained to the med staff quite pleasantly what the plan was and, after Bones had heartily agreed (_"This is payback for all the damn crap I have to put up with from _him_."_) it started. The mock-take-over that is. Annie had heard all of this and, carefully withholding any give away giggles at her Daddy's use of a Bad Word, she had bid her new friend farewell and escaped out the ventilation duct in Bones' office.

She had taken as direct a route as she could back to her bedroom and had skipped out of it in time to see Jim racing past, metal tubes in hand to help reinforce the barricade.

At the time it had all seemed like jolly good fun.

But after five days, with half the crew having broken down into hysterics at some point or another, everyone paler than they should be, and no sight of Jim's ever-present grin since Bones' capture, Annie was starting to think that maybe it had all gone too far. She was still confident that her Daddy and his subordinates were safe in the med bay - in fact, Bones had probably unearthed the _proper_ bottle of bourbon by now and had shared it around.

There was something scary about the cold look on Jim's - _Pa's_ - face, though. He still struggled to smile for her, to appear as lighthearted as ever, and he _appeared_ to be doing much better than the rest of the crew, but there were old shadows haunting his eyes, ghosts of the past being dredged up and paraded on display for all who cared to look. And, as the only one not preoccupied with their own sense of desperation and loss, Annie was the only one who picked up on it. Afterwards, she knew that Jim would be grateful for that.

But it all called for some action. So, with a lot of persuading Scotty and a lot of preparation and reassurance and arguing over whether the ventilation shafts _really_ ran that way, because that's not what the plan said, Annie had a plan. The ninth day after it had begun, she waited until Jim tucked her up in bed, kissing her forehead and promising that her Daddy would be safe soon, she snuck out and down to the cargo bays.

Scotty was there waiting for her with a torch, a laser (just in case) and a com. They ran through the plan once more - more for _his_ sake than hers - and then Annie slipped once more into the ventilation shafts and scrambled her way about until she reached the energy shield put up to cut off the med bay. Using the com, she created a large enough gap for her to slip through, before sealing it back up again after her. Then she wound her way up through to her Daddy's office.

Everything was almost exactly as she had left it. Apart from the new lock on the desk drawer that would have made Annie giggle if she wasn't so angry at her Daddy right then.

Moments later she had stormed out of Bones' office and was yelling at him at the top of her voice. What was he _thinking_? Didn't he miss Pa too? Didn't he think that _eight_ days was long enough to make the rest of the crew think he and the rest of the medical officers were dead? Didn't he realise that he was giving Jim back that hollowed-out look he'd almost lost before Annie even knew him?

When Annie had run out of breath and energy and her knees had given way beneath her, the only noise in the entire med bay was her own harsh sobbing, hot tears burning tracks down cheeks ruddy with exertion. She was tired and angry and she really, really wanted to curl up in between her Daddy and Pa and have her only worry be if Simba would go back to the Pride land or not. Bones had scooped her up to his chest and apologised over and over again, before asking; "eight days? It's only been two."

Whereupon the still as yet unnamed alien species had reluctantly admitted that they had twisted the time-space continuum just a little bit to make the joke last longer and have greater effect. At which point Annie had yelled at them again, this time joined by her Daddy and the rest of the med staff, until the well-meaning, but foolish race were cowering under the bio beds and apologising hastily and fervently.

It had taken less than three minutes for Jim to be crushing Bones to his chest, weeping openly into his lover's shoulder. The ghosts of his past were once more vanquished and locked away in the darkest, quietest parts of his mind and Jim, when he had let Bones go, had stood back straight and imperious frown in place. The race of small, furry, rotund creatures had returned to their ship in full health but with a general warning not to approach the _USS Enterprise _again unless they had express permission from the Federation.

A couple of hours later, after several heartfelt apologies and reunions, and after a perfunctory scolding of Annie (more for the sake of it than actually because they were cross with her) Jim, Bones and Annie had settled down on the lounge in their shared quarters and watched the Lion King. Jim and Annie cried when King Mufasa died. Bones provided them with tissues. He rolled his eyes when they sang along to Hakuna Matata. And then, when the credits finally rolled up, Bones and Jim and Annie were back in their easy, comfortable family roles. There was still and element of insecurity - in particular on Jim's part - but they had returned to being a family unit.


	8. 007 Days

007. Days

Scotty wasn't one to be fooled easily. It took a lot to trick him, but even more to trick him when it came to his precious engineering. During the two week relief on Earth before they left, Daisy Gallagher managed to do so. She was a sixteen year old sprite-like teenager with short spiky hair, a ready smile and a rebellious streak a mile wide. Daisy - or Days, as she preferred to be called - was Scotty's goddaughter and the only child of one of his oldest friends, and when Scotty had seen her last she had been a cute, naïve ten year old who was faultlessly polite.

When he had seen her again that's precisely what he thought she still was, in spite of the indecently short shorts she was wearing. Her parents, more than willing to kick her out of the house for a day, had told her to show him around the garage and the race course she'd set up. It was more a dirt track than a race course, but Days had set up numerous cameras hidden in trees and rocks so they wouldn't be stolen and had shown him the over-sized plasma screen that she wheeled out of the garage when the races were going on so people could watch the action anywhere on the course.

Scotty had been suitably amazed at all this, but what really took the biscuit was the somewhat banged up, retro VW Camper van that gleamed proudly in one corner of the garage. Days had taken him over, pointed out all that she'd done to it, then opened the driver's door and invited him to take it for a ride.

It had fallen to pieces before Scotty had made it out the garage door.

Days had burst into tears and Scotty had apologised profusely numerous times and promised to help repair it, before Days had started laughing.

"I can't believe you feel for it!" she said between giggles once she'd calmed down a little. "Man, that was priceless! Dad said that you wouldn't fall for it, being the amazing engineer you are, but… I win!"

Scotty had glowered, or done his best to glower, before starting to laugh as well. "How d'you manage to pull it off, kiddo?"

"Couple of fake screws, the wrong type of gas in the tank - it doesn't take much. I never figured that anyone other than the no-knowledge dorks around here would fall for it. I can't afford to buy all the missing parts, so I substitute what I can, then use it to pull jokes like that."

Scotty couldn't take offence at the joke, it was far too brilliant for that. Anyone else might have grouched and complained, but the fact that this teenager, without any proper engineering or mechanical training, had managed to fool him… He was going to get his own back, but not in the way anyone entirely suspected.

At the end of the day, after Days had invited round some of her friends and they'd raced around the course a couple of times, none of them half as intelligent as she, but all excited and pleased by the exuberant attention of an adult, Days had locked everything up and she and Scotty had cruised back across to her parent's house. Dinner had been an awkward affair, Days' parents quick to criticise and a loud shouting match starting after her mother realised the joke that Days had pulled. It ended with Days storming out.

Scotty had sat uncomfortably through it all, not willing to say anything but sharing odd looks with his friend, Days' dad, who also said very little. Once the door had slammed shut behind Days and her mother had taken her seat, Scotty coughed and tried not to meet her eye. Regardless, she spoke to him.

"I'm so sorry about that, Monty, she gets more out of hand as she gets older. I don't know what to do for her. She's too clever for the kids around here, they're dragging her down and she seems to enjoy playing their stupid games. I wish there was something I could do for her."

"What school is she going to?" Scotty asked, grasping desperately at straws.

"The local. Or she was. I'm worried that now her compulsory education is over she's just not going to go back."

Scotty saw his friend shake his head disbelievingly out of the corner of his eye - Scotty had to agree, Days didn't seem the type to give up on anything, no matter how dull she found it. "She's a smart kid, and she's good at mechanics, fooled me with that trick with the car. If…" Scotty paused and glanced up from staring at his plate. "If she wants to and you two don't mind - she could apprentice under me. Jimmy's made me Chief Engineer on the _Enterprise_ and I can take on an apprentice if I think it's appropriate - I think she'd do well."

"_Jimmy_? As in the blonde son of Kirk, who saved the world last week? That _Enterprise_?" Scotty's friend said, spitting water across the table.

"We're about to head off on a five-year in a week, so if you don't think it's a good idea, I won't say anything more about it."

"I'll do it," a fourth voice from the door said. Days stepped through and leant against the door frame. "If only to get away from _parents_ for five years."

Scotty leant back on his chair and winked at her. "Kiddo, I'm your Godfather, don't think I won't whip your ass into shape."

Days shrugged. "So long as you admit that I'm an adult in my own right, that's cool."

The Engineer decided to say nothing, only raising his eyebrows speculatively - she, an adult? There was more to being an adult than just being old enough to drive a car.

It had taken the rest of the week and a lot more yelling and tears before Days convinced her parents that it was a good idea and turned up on Scotty's front doorstep with a duffle bag over one shoulder the day before the _Enterprise _left.

And that was how Days ended up apprenticing under Scotty in the engineering department. She was introduced briefly to the command crew when she first arrived on board, but once the friendly 'hello's were over, they quickly lost interest in her and wanted to know more about Scotty's progress on the ship. After that she only saw them once or twice over the coming months as she worked herself to exhaustion under Scotty's watchful eye. She saw more of Annie, the Captain and CMO's five year old than she did of any of the others.

After twelve years spent in the back of classrooms, getting through the work set in half the time of everyone else, Days wasn't prepared for the sudden onslaught of information that working with Scotty provided. The Scott taught her everything about the ship that he could, how to fix it, how to improve it. All of her time was devoted to living up to the astronomical expectations of her mentor, whether it be under his supervision, helping one of the ensigns or ordering PADDs upon PADDs of information and reading material to keep up with the theories that Scotty produced in normal conversation.

She survived three months into the mission before she broke down. It wasn't an emotional break down that Scotty had been predicting after the explosive and vicious way Days had bid her parents farewell, but instead it was a physical one. She was an incredibly smart young woman, but no one can go from not needing to put any effort into school work to pouring their everything all of the time into learning more without there being some kind of back lash. For three months Days hadn't been getting enough sleep, had had little to no free time that she used to do fun stuff, and often forgot to eat.

Days was being shooed out of the main Engineering deck to go and eat one of those often forgotten meals when she had fainted dead away. She had woken about half an hour later with the sound of the CMO chewing out Scotty.

"She's malnourished, overworked and exhausted, Mr Scott! What have you been doing to the poor girl?"

"I haven't been doing anything! I've just been treating her like a normal apprentice! Do you think I would purposefully do something like this to anyone?"

There was the sound of someone being thwacked with a com. "Like a normal apprentice? You idiot! She's sixteen! Not a university graduate! She's probably been spending all of her spare time reading up on all the information she _hasn't been taught yet_! No wonder she's exhausted."

"But… she's been keeping up fine, she's doing better than any other apprentice I've ever trained."

"Scotty. She fainted. She hasn't been eating or sleeping properly. I don't think that counts as doing better, even if she's learning faster than anyone else."

"God. I never meant this to happen. I'm trying to look out for her. I thought it was just… teenage stuff."

Days decided then was probably a good time to enter the conversation. It wasn't Scotty's fault, after all, that she'd been working herself ragged. It wasn't as though she'd given any hint of it. Truth be told, she enjoyed it; she liked having something to do all the time, a way to occupy her mind on things other than the next best way to irritate her parents.

"S'not your fault, Scotty," she said blearily, trying to sit up.

Bones was by her side in a second, pressing her back down on the bio bed. "Try not to move, idiot girl."

"Your bedside manner could do with some working on," she griped, but lay back and didn't move anyway.

"Jim doesn't seem to mind it," the doctor shot back, making Days smother a laugh.

"I bet he doesn't," she murmured, winking suggestively. "I bet he likes it when you moan at him."

Bones, to his credit, only hesitated for a moment before he continued his medical inspection. Scotty, on the other hand, turned bright red. "I can't believe you have that mouth on you, lass," he complained.

"You're kind of my boss. McCoy's my doctor. There's a difference."

"Well, you're good to get out of bed," Bones said then, leaning back and allowing Days to sit up. "I want you on a high protein diet for the next week or so, though, and you're not to do any work for at least three days. When you come back this time next week I want you to tell me about at least one new friend you've made."

"There anyone on this ship close to my age?" Days asked standing and swaying momentarily as she tried to regain her equilibrium.

"There's a girl on the cleaning crew who's seventeen, and a couple of the ensigns are eighteen or nineteen. Chekov's seventeen, but he and the rest of the bridge crew are in the middle of a interplanetary conference at the moment, so it's probably best not to introduce you to him," Bones said, checking the people off on his fingers. "Oh, and I think one of the gunmen is eighteen. I'm not sure, though, because I know the signature on his med file is forged."

"Wait, this Chekov guy is my age and on the bridge crew?" Days said, blinking. "Whoa, he must be a complete genius."

"You're a genius," Scotty said, nudging her. "Just didn't have the same opportunities as he did."

"Besides," Bones continued, "the poor kid's having a rough time of it, working with people who are older than him. He finds it hard to get any of them, especially Jim, to take him seriously when it's not relating to ship function and control."

Days looked doubtful for a moment before nodding. "Well, whatever. I'll look up the others then." she said as she headed towards the door.

"I want you eating in the mess as well!" Bones called out after her. "I want to keep an eye on your diet, so you'll have to put up with sitting with me, Jim and Annie."

Days laughed and told him, "That's ok, Annie'll save me from old man talk." and promptly got shooed from the med bay.

The following week was awkward for her in many ways, but enjoyable in others. She didn't have anything to do which was a relief, but also boring. Everyone else had settled into their new routine so it was hard to not have anything to do. Days had also never been particularly good at making friends with people - normally, it was others trying to make friends with her, whether out of loneliness or in the hope that she'd help them with their homework, she'd been popular enough without really trying. So introducing herself to a group of about five teenagers who'd already made the first friendship links was difficult and annoying.

However, once the first tentative introductions had been made, Days found she'd really missed company of her own age. She and the two other girls got on like a house on fire and suddenly the previous three months seemed like a strange type of torture that she just hadn't realised at the time.

Meal times had been the hardest to get used to, mostly because of Bones' insistence that Days ate with him and the Captain. The first day, Days had sat and listened to Annie's inane, childish prattle whilst eating as quickly as possible before running away back to her friends. As the week progressed, however, she found herself opening up a little more, although she only spoke directly to the five year old and Bones.

"Are you scared of me?" Jim had finally asked the last lunch time that Bones insisted she sit with them.

Days shrugged and stared avoided looking at Jim for as long as possible.

"Don't be silly, Pa!" Annie blurted, poking the Captain in the side. "She'd not scared of you. She just doesn't know how to talk to you. Silly."

"I - it's… my older sister knew you," Days stopped and blinked harshly, still not able to meet bright blue eyes.

Bones had seen Days' file and immediately scooped Annie up, tossing her in the air before placing her on her feet on the floor. "Come on, sweetpea, this is a conversation that these two need to have alone."

Annie nodded wisely and kissed Jim on the cheek before grabbing her Dad's hand and walking with him out of the mess.

Jim looked confused. "I don't understand, I though Scotty said you were an only child?"

Days gulped and nodded. "I am - now."

"What happened? And how did I know her?"

"I - " Days stopped and took a steadying breath. "Tarsus IV," she whispered. "She was from my Dad's first marriage, six years older than me. She decided she wanted to try living with her mum for a bit, I think mostly to see what it was like living off-world. She was there when everything happened."

Days hesitated long enough for Jim to interrupt. "Ten? Fuck, I remember her. Cute kid, blonder than me, head of curls and cheeky sense of humour."

She let out a sob. "She said you beat up some kid for her in the playground. I was only four, but I remember her so clearly… she told me that when she got married it'd be to someone like you."

"Yeah, there was the big boy, built like a tank who always picked on the younger kids and tried to steal their lunch. Don't remember his name, only the way he screamed and bled when they came." Jim's eyes were filled with ghosts of the past, no longer on board the _USS Enterprise_, instead reliving the nightmare of his childhood. "They were all so brave, the kids. I tried to save them, tried so hard. I remember Tony, the five year old with the birthmark that covered half his face. They cut the skin of it off, said that having a scar was better than having such an ugly mark. I tried to stop the bleeding, but they'd pulled the eye on that side of his face right out. Nothing I could do. Died in my arms, poor boy.

"And Jasmine, she was so proud of her little sister, always going on about how smart Daisy was and that Daisy was better at maths than everyone in her class, and how one day they'd live together, just the two of them, and become famous. She had beautiful hair - she let me plait it for her when I scared her bully off. They took her, I tried to stop them, but they took her away and rip her hair out and leave bite marks and she'd come back trying so hard not to cry -"

"Stop," Days croaked. "Please. Stop."

Jim came back to himself, blinking hard several times and dislodging the tears that had formed in the corners of his eyes. "I'm sorry," he muttered, burying his face in his hands.

Days didn't really think about it, she clambered around the table and hugged Jim tight. "It's ok, it's alright." She pressed a kiss to Jim's forehead. "She loved you, you know. Said you were only reason she managed to make it out alive."

"She made it out?" Jim said, his head jerking up. "I thought you said -"

Days shook her head. "She made it back to Earth, but her injuries were too much. She talked to us though. Got a chance to say goodbye. You've no idea how grateful everyone was to you for that chance."

Jim gulped, and hugged Days tightly back. "Thank you," he murmured. "I think I needed to hear that."

Then Days stepped back and fiddled with her sleeves awkwardly for a moment. "Do you want me to go get Dr McCoy?"

"Bones? Hmm, no," Jim shook his head. "He's… brilliant, more than I think I'll ever deserve, but not what I need right now."

Days nodded. "I - I'm sorry for bringing up bad memories. I just… I thought you knew. Thank you for telling me a bit more about her, though."

Jim nodded distractedly and turned away from her. "You won't be offended if I ask that you avoid me for a while?"

Mutely, Days put a hand on the Captain's shoulder in a brief touch, before she turned and left. There was still an awkwardness between them, but the elephant that had shared the room with them before was now, at least, gone.

"Days," Jim called before she left. "Daisy. Thank you. Really."

Days ducked her head in acceptance and left.


End file.
